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I'm looking to buy a GPS as I am hunting this fall in new territory, in rough terrain and thick woods. I expect that after downing a cow, I'll be wanting to get back to the same location more than once. The alternative is tying ribbons on trees, which is not what I plan to do this time out. Any recommendations? What are the hidden fees? Thanks

No hidden fees, but a wide variety of options. I prefer as light and compact as possible so I go with a Garmin Foretrex 401. No bells, whistles, or graphics on that one though. Make sure to get one with a high sensitivity receiver that works under a canopy.

This...and I'd buy a Garmin.

A very basic GPS will do exactly what you want and you don't need to buy or download additional stuff if that's what you mean by 'hidden fees'. (The satellite signal is free and available to anyone who holds a GPS in hand.)

The only thing I'd suggest, if you've never used a GPS, is to make sure you know how to use one before you head out. At the very least, have someone hide a few objects the size of a candy bar and mark them on your GPS, then go 'look' for them. It's important to understand how the instrument reacts to the satellite inputs. They are quite precise, but the signal, while fast, is not perfectly smooth, so some people find them confusing especially when they stop or move very slowly and try to react to every input the instrument receives.

It's 2016. Get yourself a touchscreen with maps and a camera.

They call those 'smart' phones.

I have one of those too. Not something I'd want to be waving around too much in the wilderness though given my ability to get things soaked in short order. Often times I'm coming off the mountain with the GPS in my hand, making sure I don't follow the wrong creek and end up with a giant clearcut to go through or a canyon to cross.

I pair my I Phone with a Delorme Inreach. Haven't used it for hunting though, and will probably stick with my tried and true Garmin for the "wet" reason I cited above.

Bugger: Because your dealing with a canopy I strongly urge you to get a GPS with a high sensitivity receiver compatible with both US satellites and GLONASS (Russian) satellites. Because of where we are fighting the US satellite's orbits are more equator oriented and the GLONASS are more northerly oriented.
The Garmin Foretrex 401 is not GLONASS capable and lists for $199. The Garmin Etrex 10 lists for $109 and is GLONASS capable. More satellites is better.

The problem with using a smartphone as a GPS is battery life. A black and white Etrex 10 with 2 lithium batteries has a life of 25 hours and is water rated to IPX7. Compare that to a smart phone.

Never had an issue with non-GLONASS capable GPSs.

Matter of fact never heard the term before today.

Read an article recently where one was using a 65 channel system. I think US, Russian, and another European system.

I've been more than happy with low end Garmin Etrexes for all of my play endeavors. Will typically get me to within 3 to 7 yds of features extracted from digital maps or Google Earth coordinates. Does waypoints, tracks, and routes, and can upload/download to my PC. If interested in topography, I just look around wherever I'm standing.

To use a smart phone, don't you have to be in range of a tower? I doubt this area I'm thinking is.

I'm thinking Garmin

I've got a few Garmins which are over 15 years old, still waterproof, and still work well in their basic mode. While they don't have the high sensitivity receivers in them, they work inside shingled, not metal-roofed, buildings. And, if you feel like there might be a need to back track the same way out that you came 'in', even the old stuff had back-track or 'bread crumb' features which allow a person to follow a path previously made while the unit was turned on. A couple extra alkaline batteries in the pocket are enough to give a person better than 24 hours of continuous use as well.

Well, my GPS has been up to now a pocket full of ribbons which I tied to tree branches. I guess they were cookie crumbs?

I've seen people use nothing but the electronic 'bread crumbs' the GPS has to find their previous recorded 'waypoints'. However, my real appreciation for the backtrack/bread crumb feature was fully realized one night as we returned from a 90 mile boat trip down into the mouth of the Yukon River. After battling the mud of the river mouth near low tide with our decidedly non-river-boat semi-V ocean boat, darkness and then fog caught us before we were back into more familiar territory. By trying to keep shore in sight in the fog, I kept getting into progress-halting mud. I finally decided to get offshore to where we had traveled in the daylight and follow our 'trail'. I turned on a light and had my wife be my 'night vision' in the bow. (I was only worried about hitting driftwood.) The 'bread crumb' trail kept us well offshore until we got back to a familiar canal where we could beach the boat until morning and rest on dry ground for a few hours.

I have a ten-year-old Magellan eXplorist that I have used extensively to get around and find my way back, as well as for mapping range sites and wildlife habitat polygons. I have used it once or twice in geocaching and, if I was going do it more often, I would probably update it with a Garmin eTrex of some variety.

If I ever have to spend a lot of time looking for new hunting spots, I would want one on which I could download topos, and perhaps one of the programs that shows land ownership. I would suggest starting with a $100-$150 unit and upgrade it if you need to, once you know exactly what additional features you would use.

The breadcrumb deal was once a life saver for a friend. We had worked all day deploying 125 temperature sensors in a 2000 acre pasture via 4-wheelers. Sensors were in a grid pattern, but one could not run straight lines between stations. At day's end his wallet was gone. I suggested he backtrack the breadcrumb trail, and he was back in 1/2 hour with his wallet. It had fallen out mid-route rather than at one of our stops.

Neat feature, but I typically don't run my units continuously.

If I hunted areas near private land regularly I would definitely want the boundary feature. I always bring a paper map & compass though, print my own on 8 1/2 x 11 waterproof stock. Good to have backup and I just like paper maps better than a small screen so I've never felt the need to download maps. YMMV as always.

If you'll be hunting in very cold weather like me, pick one with buttons instead of touchscreen.

Having to take off your gloves every time you want to take a look at your next stop or mark a waypoint is frustrating and takes you out of "hunting mode" and into "how the heck can I make this flippin' thing work?" mode.

The touchscreen models have a larger, easier to read display, but like I said before, they can be difficult to use if you're wearing gloves. The Garmin Oregon and Montana are fine touchscreen models, and the GPSmap 64 is a great button-activated model.

Cabelas has the 64st (normally $349, includes topo maps) on sale right now for the same price as a 64s ($299). I just used a 10% off code, free shipping and a few Cabelas Club points to buy mine for roughly $100 less than I could get it at another nearby retail location.

I might be able to match that somewhere online, but I like being able to drive to Cabelas and get instant action if it needs warranty work.